The present invention relates to a vehicular headlamp such as a headlamp and an auxiliary lamp.
In recent years, vehicles have been developed with a large number of auxiliary lamps in combination with a headlamp to improve safety. The auxiliary lamps are used to change the light distribution when the vehicle is traveling at high speed, around curves, or in the rain. At high speed, the auxiliary lamps are used to illuminate substantially the same range illuminated by the headlamp. Around curves, the auxiliary lamps illuminate diagonally ahead on both sides. In the rain, the auxiliary lamps mainly illuminate a shoulder and white lines of a centerline.
However, providing a large number of auxiliary lamps takes up space and raises costs.
A vehicular headlamp of the present invention can provide various light distributions of a large number of lamps with only a small number of lamps.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a vehicular headlamp comprises a bulb in which two filaments are disposed one behind the other and a reflector that reflects the light produced by the filaments. The reflector includes two reflector parts having different applications, a shade that prevents the light produced by one filament from entering into one reflector part, and a shade that prevents the light produced by the other filament from entering into the other reflector part. Consequently, one lamp can have dual applications.
In another embodiment, a vehicular headlamp comprises a bulb in which two filaments are disposed one behind the other and a bulb internal shade is provided in the vicinity of a front filament and a reflector that reflects the light produced by the filaments. The reflector includes upper and lower reflector parts having different applications, and a bulb external shade disposed outside the bulb. The bulb internal shade prevents the light produced by the front filament from entering into one of the reflector parts and the bulb external shade prevents the light produced by the rear filament from entering into the other reflector part.
According to still another embodiment, the bulb internal shade is disposed under the front filament and the bulb external shade is disposed above the rear filament. The light reflected by the upper reflector part creates a light distribution that illuminates both sides ahead of a vehicle and the light reflected by the lower reflector part creates a light distribution that illuminates a shoulder or a centerline.
According to yet still another embodiment, the bulb internal shade is disposed under the front filament and the bulb external shade is disposed above the rear filament. The light reflected by the upper reflector part creates a light distribution in which the light substantially condenses and illuminates directly ahead of a vehicle and the light reflected by the lower reflector part creates a light distribution that illuminates both sides ahead of the vehicle.
According to another embodiment, the bulb internal shade is disposed under the front filament and the bulb external shade is disposed above the rear filament. Therefore, the light reflected by the upper reflector part creates a light distribution in which the light substantially condenses and illuminates directly ahead of a vehicle and the light reflected by the lower reflector part creates a light distribution that illuminates a shoulder or a centerline.